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Benjamin Franklin Whittemore record book and photographs

 Collection
Identifier: W-0077
  • No requestable containers

Scope and Contents

This collection contains a 165-page record book documenting the history of the Fifty-third Massachusetts Volunteer Militia and the post-war lives of militia members compiled by Benjamin Franklin Whittemore. A regimental roster lists the names, age at enlistment, and post-war occupations of members of the Fifty-third Massachusetts Companies A through K. The book also includes lists of officers, desertions, and deaths. Newspaper clippings describing regiment reunions. The collection includes Civil War cartes-de-visite of Whittemore and Henry A. Willis.

Dates

  • Creation: 1863 - 1887

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

None

Biographical / Historical

A Union chaplain and congressman, Benjamin Franklin Whittemore was born in Malden, Massachusetts, on May 18, 1824. Whittemore attended Amherst College and became a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1859. During the Civil War, Whittemore served as a chaplain in the Fifty-Third Massachusetts Volunteer Militia. After the war, Whittemore moved to Darlington, South Carolina, and was elected to Congress, where he served from July 1868 to February 1870, when he resigned the seat. After several unsuccessful attempts to regain his congressional seat in South Carolina, Whittemore returned to Massachusetts and became a publisher. He died in Montvale, Massachusetts, on January 25, 1894.

Source: Biographical Dictionary of the United States Congress

Extent

0.2 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

Record book of Chaplain Benjamin Franklin Whittemore of the Fifty-Third Massachusetts, describing the military service of its members

Physical Location

The A. S. Williams III Americana Collection, University Libraries Division of Special Collections, The University of Alabama.

Provenance

Gift of A. S. Williams III, 2010

General

Title on phase box spine: Confederate Alabama: Documents and Letters

Processed by

Haley Aaron and Martha Bace, 2013

Source

Title
Guide to Benjamin Franklin Whittemore record book
Status
Completed
Date
February 2014
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
English

Repository Details

Part of the The University of Alabama Libraries Special Collections Repository

Contact:
Box 870266
Tuscaloosa AL 35487-0266
205.348.0513